A judge in California has instructed a prosecutor’s office to either release a 71-year-old prisoner on death row or retry his case within 60 days.
According to CNN, Curtis Lee Ervin was convicted of murder for a contracted 1986 killing and has been on death row for 33 years. A federal judge has informed the Alameda County prosecutor’s office of the choice to try the 71-year-old again or set him free. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has accused the office of prosecutorial misconduct in jury selection when Ervin’s trial took place.
Ervin was found guilty of a 1986 murder-for-hire.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price contacted the media outlet via email and stated there was no info on what choice they would make, but the decision must happen by Sept. 30. Bonta stated that Alameda prosecutors illegally excluded Black jurors. This was a practice started by Alameda County prosecutors in the 1980s and ran through the early 2000s. Prosecutors deliberately excluded prospective Black and Jewish jurors during that time.
Price admitted to CNN that a current prosecution team discovered evidence in boxes that had notes showing previous deputy district attorneys had intentionally excluded Black and Jewish jurors.
“The markings by the prosecutor next to the names of Black jurors were affirmative evidence of the prosecution’s fixation with the jurors’ race,” said Brian Pomerantz, an attorney involved with three of the cases being reviewed. He is also involved in the settlement of dozens of other cases.
In Ervin’s case in 1991, jurors found Ervin guilty of murder in the death of Carlene McDonald. Ervin’s attorney, Pamala Sayasane, told CNN that all six potential Black women were excused from serving on the jury. She also indicated that three potential male Black jurors were excused. Excluding potential jurors based on sex, race, or ethnicity is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, also known as Batson violations.
Sayasane said that Ervin is “overjoyed and in disbelief. He’s been incarcerated for 38 years. He’s grateful to everyone who helped him. I’m in a daze, as is my client.”
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